


Town Kids, Country Kids

by Padawan_Writer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: All live together on a farm, Alternate Universe - British, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Basically the best of British town and country, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, British countryside, Dog BB-8, Dog R2-D2 (Star Wars), Except Ben who was kicked out, Family Drama, Fluff, Food, London, Mechanic Rey, Multi, POV Rey (Star Wars), Rey Needs A Hug, Skywalker Family Farm, So many relationships it was hard to tag, Team as Family, That's Why We're Using Poe's, The Dark Side loves cars, The Resistance has good cooks, The Shower in Finn's Room is Broken Again, lots of eating, lots of hugging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25860565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Padawan_Writer/pseuds/Padawan_Writer
Summary: Rey is a car mechanic out of work and looking for a job. At the Takodana Classic Car Motor Show, she's offered two... Ben Solo has a place for her skills in his London company, First Order Cars, and Leia Organa offers her a farm job in the kind of family Rey has always wanted. Family issues mean she can't have both... so which will she choose?Or:THEY’RE BRITS WHO BONDED OVER FOOD AND CARS, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL WARM YOUR HEART
Relationships: Amilyn Holdo & Leia Organa, Amilyn Holdo/Leia Organa, Armitage Hux & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux & Millicent the Cat, Armitage Hux & Phasma, Armitage Hux & Phasma & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux & Rey, BB-8 & Poe Dameron, BB-8 & Rey, C-3PO & R2-D2, Chewbacca & Han Solo, Finn & Han Solo, Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Finn & Temmin "Snap" Wexley, Finn/Rose Tico, Kaydel Ko Connix & Leia Organa, Kaydel Ko Connix & Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey & Rose Tico, Kaydel Ko Connix/Poe Dameron, Kaydel Ko Connix/Poe Dameron/Finn/Rose Tico, Kaydel Ko Connix/Rey, Leia Organa & Rey, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Luke Skywalker & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron & Amilyn Holdo, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Poe Dameron/Rose Tico, R2-D2 & Rey (Star Wars), Rey & Han Solo, Rey & Luke Skywalker, Rey & Millicent the Cat, Rey & Temmin "Snap" Wexley, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	1. Classic Cars

[ ](https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/623889354621718291/)

Rey pulled her head out of the car’s engine to sneeze violently. Knocking back another hay fever tablet, she peered again at the old Millennium’s engine. It was a bit of a miracle really that the old girl had made it all the way from London to the Takodana Classic Car Show here in the South Downs. The old car was currently Rey’s only asset—if she could just fix up the cranky thing her sale would probably cover the next two month’s rent, until she could find a proper mechanic job. But maybe, maybe the pennies would stretch to a cup of tea in the tea tent. It was a blazing hot July day. Maybe her flat mate Finn would be in there: she had lost track of him nearly an hour ago when it became clear he was not helping with the tools at all no matter how hard he tried. There might even be prospective buyers or dealers in the tea tent. It was worth a look. Rey shut the bonnet and threaded her way across the milling field.

In the cool marquee, she was accosted by a tiny old lady from behind flimsy tables laden with flapjacks and banana bread. “Hello love. I’m Maz. What can I get you?”

“Tea, just tea is lovely,” Rey scooted a fifty pence across the table.

As Maz busied herself pouring out a paper cup of tea, a voice next to her murmured, “You should really try the profiteroles…” Rey turned. The man was indeed talking to her. A very tall young man in rolled up white shirt sleeves, thick black hair, chiselled features, stuffing a cream-slathered profiterole in his mouth.

Rey grinned. “Aw, great, I’m, uh, fine though! All good!”

“Let me get you one! Be my guest!”

“No no really it’s fine! Very kind,” Rey stammered. The stranger wasn’t handsome but there was something about the open neck of his collar and the shock of his hair and his aura of awkwardness that were hotter than even the Millenium’s pistons.

“Don’t you like them? Here, try half of mine…” He broke off half of the other profiterole on his paper plate and held it out to her. Rey suddenly found her hands all full of tea and car keys and toolbox-cum-handbag, knew she couldn’t save the situation by dropping stuff and spilling her tea everywhere, so she leaned up and opened her mouth. He laughed and stuffed it directly in her mouth. His thumb accidentally brushed her cheek but he snatched his fingers away when she bit down hungrily. She hadn’t had breakfast or lunch, and it was good, despite her embarrassment. He gave her an awkward grin.

“What kind of car have you got?” He asked conversationally.

Rey hastened to swallow and nearly choked. Talking behind her hand, she told him, “An old Millennium. She’s got a beast of a selenium drive but I’m trying to fix her up to sell. I’m a mechanic.”

“Hey, nice! I’m a dealer, started my own business, First Order Cars. I just opened a showroom up in London last year and I’m always looking for second-hand cars to buy up. I’m Ben, by the way, Ben Solo.”

“Rey,” Rey stuck her hand out and he took it in his large one and shook it. “Want to come check out the Millennium? She’s seen some adventures but she’s damn fast, helluva lot faster than most of the sweeties here.”

“I’d love to. My Dad used to own a Millennium, car I learned to drive in. Got a soft spot for them.”

Better even than Rey had hoped. She could negotiate a high price from Ben, she could smell it. Well not smell it, because she was streaming with hay fever, but “Do you have a tissue or something? Horrible hay fever, all this grass pollen.”

Been pulled out a whole packet of pocket Kleenex and handed it to her as they walked down the rows of Jaguars, X-Wings, Morgans, Tie Fighters and Upsilons. Between sniffles Rey caught her favourite smell, petrol, grease, grass. A cloud had passed in front of the sun which made it more bearably cool and less glare on her unshielded eyes—Ben, she noticed, had the coolest pair of shades known to smart young classic car owners, the sort referred to as an “investment”, crafted by people who really had their finger on the beating pulse of London coolness. Rey was glad she had taken a bit of care over her appearance this morning with her signature three-bun style, clean brown shorts and mascara, but she probably had turned into a melting mess now.

“Fix them up for fun or are you in the business?” Ben had to raise his voice over the loud chug of old engines and speeders and a few hundred car admirers using about five British understatements over and over to express their inexpressible lust for all the beautiful vehicles.

“Both and neither, sort of.” Rey squinted at him from the corner of her eyes as the sun came out again.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m a mechanic, but unemployed right now. The London garage I worked at closed down, I wasn’t fired,” she hastened to add. “Bought the Millennium for pennies and I’m trying to use my skills to get a bit of capital out of it while I look for a new job.”

Ben turned to her. “Thing’s not going so good for you right now.”

“I guess.”

“A lonely mechanic looking for a job.” He said to himself.

“Ben? You’re uh, you’re kind of creeping me out.”

He threw his head back and stood straighter. “Force, I’m sorry. I was talking about myself, actually. You know what, our company has been looking into hiring a skilled mechanic specifically for cars like these. Fix them up to sell on. You should apply.” He turned to her earnestly.

Rey considered this. Her gut told her he was being straight with her, and she couldn’t afford to turn down any whiffs of employment—especially as she basically had one foot in the door already with this one. And damn, he was worth it. “I’d love to. Yeah. Can you send me the link?” Had she really just asked for his number? Yes, she had.

Ben’s face relaxed and he smiled. He was such a big guy, when he smiled his whole presence seemed happy, and that was a big solid amount of happiness to be caught in the warmth of. “Do you have WhatsApp? Here’s my number…”

Rey whipped out her old iPhone 6, suddenly very aware of how scruffy it was with its bulky case and DON’T PANIC scribbled on the back. Sure enough, Ben’s was sleek and black and one of the much later models. He gave no indication of noticing the difference though as they exchanged numbers and sent each other awkward “Hello there,” messages.

“I’ll find the link for you in a moment,” he said, “let’s check out the car first.”

Rey pointed one row over where the big beige Millennium FA1 CON sat between a Rolls and a Beatle. An agile grey-haired guy with the most enormous St. Bernard’s sheepdog she had ever seen was examining it with evident agitation.

“Wait! Rey,” Ben said sharply. The sunshine had gone from his face and he stepped backwards behind a high backed Bentley out of sight of the gentleman.

“What’s the matter? Is something wrong?”

“That’s my Dad. We’re… not good. Should have known I’d bump into him, he never misses a show.”

Rey didn’t understand in her heart why anyone wouldn’t want to be with their family if they had one—but she knew in her head that too big a proportion of the population sincerely hated their nearest and dearest. It wasn’t her place to ask. “Oh. Okay. Do you want to meet back later when he’s moved on? Or get ice cream or something?”

“I don’t think he’s going to budge. That’s his old car, the licence-plate is the same, FA1 CON. Called it the Falcon. He lost it a while back—long story—and he’s been hunting up and down the country for it ever since.”

“Wait wait wait what! That’s the Millennium Falcon! That made the cross country Kessel Run in fourteen minutes!”

Ben half smiled at her gobsmacked expression. “Twelve. And one day I’m going to do it in ten. In that car.”

“And that’s Solo?!”

“Han Solo. There are other Solos—though you’ll never find us together.”

Rey caught his pun but her mind was running too fast to acknowledge it. “I’ve been fixing the Millennium Falcon and I meet both Solos here... what are the chances!”

Ben sighed. “Large. We’re all heavily invested in a niche business and we happen to meet at its biggest summer convention. Look, you go talk to him. You can get a high price for that baby, selling it back to him. He’s always in debt, the old nerf-herder, but he’ll give you any price you name.”

Rey hesitated to leave him. “You’ll be in touch about the job?”

“Sure. Promise. You’ve got my number if you need me.” He stuck out his hand and she put her hand in his. It was warm, large, nails gently traced with black engine grease like hers. The hold lasted just a moment too long before they released each other and Rey stepped back with a smile and went over to her infamous car.

Han Solo practically pounced on her. “Where’d you find this thing?”

“Han Solo, nice to meet you. I’m Rey.”

“Rey, huh.” The dog let out a low bark. “Where’d you get this car?”

“Niima Autos.”

“Jakku? That junkyard?” Han turned to his dog. “Told to ya we should have checked the Western Counties.” The dog growled. “Who had it? Ducain?”

“It’s mine. I got it off Unca Plutt, who got it off the Irving Bros who bought it from Ducain.” Rey has found it looked very good for professionalism if she knew the car’s details off by heart rather than shuffling through the papers she kept in the glove compartment.

“Who stole it from me! You just tell them that Han Solo just stole back the Millennium Falcon!”

“Bought it back, Mr Solo. You’re not stealing it off me!”

“Name your price then.”

Rey gave a price which was almost half again of what she knew she could sell it for elsewhere. Han agreed so quickly that she was sorry she had not gone even higher. They agreed to a bank transfer and took each other’s details.

At that moment, Finn, fresh from the outdoor bar, jumped on her from behind. “Rey! They got a really cool barbecue back there! Aaaand, I got a job washing up. Think that would look good on my resumé?”

“Finn! This is Han Solo! And this is the Millennium Falcon! This is the car that made the Kessel Run in fourteen minutes… twelve, sorry! I’ve just sold it back to him!” Rey felt that this really was turning out to be her lucky day.

“You looking for work, kid?” Han asked Finn bluntly.

“Well yes sir, I am. Fresh out of the army.” Finn stuck out his hand and Han shook it. “Name’s Finn.”

“The army, huh. And what about you? Mechanic?” Han turned to Rey.

Rey was tired of explaining her unemployed status to every single acquaintance, but she went ahead anyway. “Yes, but out of work too at the moment. Garage had to close.”

“I ask ‘cause I got a partner who’s looking for hands.”

“Yes, we—“

Han cut her off and she was glad he did when she found he wasn’t talking about Ben. “Farm work. She’s been looking for people like you but she likes her kids hand picked. Sound like you might be interested?”

“Oh yes sir, anything!” Finn said earnestly. 

Rey knew how desperate he was to find a job. But— “A farm?”

“Yeah, big farm. Cows and stuff. Breakfast and board and great food and company. They’re short of work now a couple of our overseas students have gone home.”

“Rey, this is perfect. This is so cool. Sounds amazing sir, I’ve got the muscle, I’m a big deal.” Finn said.

“Okay, Mr Big Deal. Since you’re so keen, I’ll give her a ring.” Han pulled out his phone and dialled with one click. He turned and stepped away, his dog following his every move. “Leia?”

“Rey! This is everything. This is our lucky day! I love farms. This might actually work out. It’s a godsend!” Finn stage-whispered enthusiastically.

“But Finn…” Rey took one look at his beaming face and toned down her doubts. “I have hay fever, really bad.”

“Aw. Do you need a tissue? I haven’t got one.” He didn’t get it.

“Never mind. I have some of my own.” Rey pulled out the packet Ben had given her. Finn glanced at it with a puzzled frown but didn’t comment as Han interrupted them to say that Leia was coming to meet them herself and would be there in half an hour.

“Leia… Mrs. Solo… is coming herself?”

“Yeah but not thanks to you, kid. Thanks to me. We’ve not seen each other in—in a while. Unlock the Falcon for me will you?” Rey handed him the keys and Han slid into the car. “Hey! Some moof-milker put a compressor on the ignition.”

“Unca Plutt did. I thought it was a mistake too… puts too much stress on the drive.” Rey and Han finished together. 

Han winked at her. “You’ll fit right in on the farm. Why don’t we get some burgers?”

They went and grabbed hotdogs, courtesy of Han, and Rey whiled the half-hour away quizzing Han all about the Kessel Run and the other national rallies he had won with the Falcon, all while keeping a sharp eye out for any sign of Ben. He was nowhere to be seen, however.

“Han!”

The trio turned around. There stood a lady in an old riding jacket and her grey hair up in a bun. She was short, but she had a powerful presence. She and Han locked eyes. Rey could see they were having a moment. She pulled the more oblivious Finn back with a tug on his sleeve to give them space, and pulled out her phone to make it look like she wasn’t interested in them. No new messages. Ben hadn’t made contact. So she sent him a message, “Just met both your parents!”

He was online and typing immediately, but he seemed to spend a long time typing just to tell her “Right”.

“They’re trying to Shanghai us into coming down to their farm”

“Us?” He asked. Rey was surprised that that was what he had picked up on.

“My flat mate is keen, needs a job”

“Is that the guy with you?” Was he flirting? Was he really trying to find out her relationship status? Had he been watching her then.

“Yeah, why?”

“No reason” he said. Yeah, right.

Han and Leia were coming over, so Rey quickly told Ben she had to go offline.

Leia said, “You kids look nice. Looking for jobs, are you? Why not come down to the farm for the afternoon and check us out? I’ll drive you down.” Finn was nodding along enthusiastically, and Rey decided that having a look wouldn’t do much harm. Keeping her options open. Ben’s family and all.

So Rey and Finn jumped on board the beaten up Landrover Raddus, and Han followed in the Millennium Falcon, and they all drove down to the Skywalker Family Farm.


	2. Racing Cars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doggie cuddles and the Formula 1...  
> Poe: "Do you want to stay for dinner?"  
> Leia: "Do you want to stay FOREVER?"

The English countryside scenery was stunning. It was just so green. Rey was always awed at the amount of green in the world. The curves were soft and all the fields and farmland looked so full of calm and giving. The inside of the car was more rustic, to put it politely. It smelled like dog and half the seatbelts were inexplicably cut off with only small flapping frayed ends. There was no heating or air con, and as the car got colder so did Rey and Finn. Finn found a patched jacket on the back seat which he put on. And Leia blasted John Denver all the way down the tiny roads to the Skywalker Farm.

Eventually they pulled into a junk-filled farmyard and hopped out with relief: there was nothing that induced car-sickness more than the high-hedged one-laned windy country roads. Rey was greeted by half a dozen squawking chickens and a very serious blonde ten year old. “Hello, I am Siegfried Potato. I live here.” He informed her.

“I’m Rey,” said Rey. With those words she started the most surreal afternoon of her life… she almost believed she had fallen through a wormhole into another world, a world where the golden afternoon sun shone down on the two most important things in this reality, family and food.

The boy turned around and with a louder voice than she thought anyone but an opera singer could possibly have, he bellowed, “AHOY! VISITORS!”

That’s when they all came out the woodwork, headed by gorgeous young Spaniard. “I’m Poe, Poe Dameron. Hey! That’s my jacket!” He told Finn.

“Oh, I’m sorry, here…” 

But Poe was already slapping Finn on the back. “Keep it. It suits you. You have a name?”

“Finn.” Rey could tell he was enamoured already.

“Let’s just do introductions all round, shall we?” Leia said. “This is Rey, and Finn. Thinking of staying here. This is Poe Dameron, Kaydel Connix, Siegfried Potato her son, Auntie Amy—Amilyn Holdo, Rose Tico, Snap Wexley, Han Solo you know, and I’m sure Uncle Luke is hiding somewhere. The collie dog is called Arty.”

“He’s my friend,” Siegfried declared.

There was a chorusing of hellos and welcomes, followed by Auntie Amy-with-the-purple-hair declaring that they were all in luck because she had just baked chocolate eclairs. The rabble trooped into the kitchen with a cheer as Rey and Finn followed awkwardly behind. Rey was surprised to find that her primary emotion was—envy. Yes, she was envious of these people… because they were a group, a team, a family. Something she’d never had. But she soon forgot her thoughts when not one but two chocolate eclairs were shoved in her hands. There and then Rey decided to enjoy her unexpected holiday determinedly, and go with the flow of where it took her.

The kitchen was large and homey and smelled of bread and chocolate. It was decorated in a medley of colours, predominantly dark red and duck egg blue with a lot of cream and wood and wild flowers and cheap antiques. There was an enormous table with a dozen mismatched wooden kitchen chairs which nobody sat on: Poe perched up on the countertop, pecked Aunty Amy on the cheek, and Kaydel heaved herself up beside him, while the rest of them stood around.

“Do you know what day it is today?” Poe asked them.

“Sunday?” Finn said.

“Which means…” he looked meaningfully at them.

“The Formula One racing is on!” Rey exclaimed. The cheer was deafening. Rey grinned for the first time—she had never thought to find anyone in real life who was as enthusiastic about racing cars as she was.

“That’s settled then. Stay and watch it with us!” Poe said.

“I—uh, you—“

“Time for a tour of the farm!” Poe interrupted. “You are here about the jobs, aren’t you? Tallie and Paige had to go home.”

“It was sooo sad!” Kaydel said. They all looked genuinely mournful.

“Paige was my sister,” Rose said as if Paige had died or something.

“Make sure you show her the farm machinery.” Leia called. “She’s a mechanic.”

“Hoo boi. Have we got some stuff for you to fix.” Snap shook his head.

“Come on,” Rose took Finn’s hand and smiled, pulling him out the door. Everyone followed. “Let’s do The Tour. Hop in the jeep.”

The Grand Tour took almost two hours. Rey was excited to discover that they had two vintage tractors sitting in a barn that had pretty much been sitting there since Leia took over the farm as a teenager. “Guys! Those things are worth thousands if you get them working properly!” 

They looked at her in awe. “Thousands? Just sitting there? Could you really do that?”

Rey didn’t want to commit herself. But they were asking her to be one of them; and she had just made special friends with Poe’s terrier, Beebee. Poe had hastened to assure her very loudly that “Beebee” did not mean “Baby”, he would never call his dog something so soppy, it was just Beebee. Rey didn’t believe a word of that, not after seeing Poe scratch him behind both his ears cooing, “Beebee, my buddy!”

“I’ll see,” she said. She was determined to find out more about these people first.

“So how does it work here?” She asked Kaydel who was sitting next to her as they finished their tour of the dilapidated barns. “Who’s related to who? Who actually owns the place?”

“Leia does. She’s like the Mum. None of us are her actual children though. She’s only got a son.”

Ben, that must be Ben. Her curiosity was piqued, and she smiled at the memory of him confidently among the cars. “Oh? What’s he like?”

“He’s not one of us.” Kaydel said coldly. “I hate him.”

“Wow, why?” Rey was taken aback.

Kaydel pursed her lips. “He made Leia cry.”

Rey didn’t know what to say. She was desperately curious, but she couldn’t pry.

“Look, here’s the river. We have a lot of picnics here in the summer. Why don’t we paddle now?” Kaydel said. With the others, Rey got out and took off her trainers and socks. She walked gingerly over the stones into the shallow running water.

She didn’t realise how hot and tired she was until the cold water swirled around her sore feet, washing, freshening and numbing. The sound and feel of the splashing water was as calming and refreshing as a busy London pavement wasn’t. She closed her eyes and leaned down to dip her hands in... and shrieked as someone splashed her on the head. She glanced up. It was Kaydel. Rey laughed aloud, scooped up water and splashed Kaydel back for all she was worth, and everybody else too.

“No don’t you dare don’t you dare don’t you dare...” Finn yelled as she turned mischievously to him. “Argh, no! Now I’m soaking!”

As they played in the water, Rey forgot her anxieties for the first time in a very long while.

They lay back on the grassy bank and let the afternoon sun dry them. Poe came and flopped comfortably down between her and Finn, despite the fact that there was barely enough space. Rey budged over. Finn didn’t. “There’s a place deep enough to swim further up the river, but there isn’t time today.” He opened conversationally. “What is the time actually?”

Rey pulled out her phone. No messages from Ben. “It’s a quarter to five.”

Finn jumped up. “Only fifteen minutes till the race starts! We’ve got to get back, come on!” 

“Really?” Finn moaned as he tagged with the rest of them piling eagerly back in the jeep.

“Come and sit beside me up front,” Poe encouraged as he slid into the driver’s seat. Rey knew at that moment that whatever her decision, Finn would stay here for the rest of his life if they let him. And she would have to go back to—nobody. An empty flat which she couldn’t afford on her own. Lonely grey city, looking for somewhere cheaper, colder, mouldier. Only broken cars for company. Beebee jumped on her lap and she fondled his ears as he settled contentedly. Rey had never felt so comfortably loved by anyone as she did by the dog just then.

Inside, they found Aunty Amy and Leia sharing popcorn on a sofa together in the living room in front of the tv. There were two large leather green sofas and a matching armchair, very comfortable as Rey discovered. It was a big room: stuffed bookshelves lined the walls, the ceiling had real wooden beams, and the wooden floor was covered in a multitude of soft colourful rugs. The huge tv was mounted on a wall above a big fireplace that was filled with a mass of meadow flowers. The tv was showing the pre-race interviews, discussing the track circuit, looking at the different hardnesses of tyres the teams were starting the race on, and recapping the pole positions—all comfortably familiar and eternally interesting to Rey. She squished up in a corner as they all tried to fit together on the sofa. The sofa was designed to take three comfortably—five of them managed to squeeze on, sitting on top of each other, while Snap, who was plumper than them, had his own beanbag on the floor at their feet.

It was Kaydel who elected to sit next to Rey—well less like sit next to and more like have their sides and legs glued together with their arms and shoulders tangled up. Rey tried to remember the last time she had hugged anyone, like really hugged, not made out with. She worried when she drew a complete blank. Kaydel was warm. Was this what family was like?

“Are you okay?” Kaydel asked.

Rey smiled warmly. “Your elbow is sticking in me. Thanks. Oh look, the warm up lap started.”

Han Solo sauntered in and plumped down beside Leia on what Rey now thought of as “the grown-ups sofa”. Leia took his hand and squeezed it. “You’ve been away for too long.”

Moments before the race started, an old guy in a dusty grey shirt appeared like a shadow and took the armchair. It must have been Uncle Luke, but Rey didn’t have any time to examine him before the presenter yelled “And it’s lights out and away we go! Hamilton getting off a great start, Bottas pulls up close, Verstappen takes the inside as Bottas struggles to hold the line...” and the whole crowd of them were yelling at the tv, cheering on the Mercedes, shouting at the Red Bull. It was the best kind of chaos.

It calmed somewhat when they entered the middle of the race, and Rose fetched the biscuit barrel and an industrial sized teapot and mugs on a tray. Rey watched, fascinated, as Rose actually set a timer on her phone and poured out the tea into the milk-filled mugs after exactly three minutes. She put sugar in some, almost no milk in another, clearly knowing everybody’s preferences by heart. Rey received her perfect builder’s brew. It was just a mug of tea, yet... these guys made everything into something special.

Excitement heated up at the end of the race. With six laps to go, Bottas (a lead driver who had been steadily holding second place) crashed out—he was okay but the car was wrecked with its tyres off and all of them were yelling at the screen, hotly discussing whether it was the driver’s fault or a car failure. On the replay, Rey’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out. A message from Ben! “OMG that last minute crash!”

Angling her phone away from the others, Rey typed back “r u watching too?!?!”

“Of course and ik you’re watching because you’re at the farm” 

“I watch anyway” she told him.

“Cool do you think the crash was his fault” he said.

“Idk I don’t think so but now they’ve got the safety car so Hamilton should pit”

“He’s pitting” Ben went off line as the final laps had them on the edge of their seat, and Hamilton, the six time world champion, took the chequered flag.

As the race wound down Rey found it was after seven o’clock. “Shoot. Is there a train station near here? I never meant to stay so late,” she said, heaving herself out of the deep recesses of the sofa and stretching. “Finn, we really have to go.”

Finn was entrenched practically underneath Poe and looked very reluctant to move, ever.

“Oh no! No no no,” Poe and Kaydel said together. “You must stay for dinner now. I’ve cooked lamb curry, you really must try the lamb curry.” Poe said.

“Oh yes! You must try Poe’s cooking, he’s a good cook,” Kaydel agreed.

“But then it would be really late to catch the train home.”.

“But you would stay the night of course.” Poe said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Then you could make up your mind about the job in the morning.”

Rey turned to Leia. It was her house, her hospitality— “What are you looking at me for?” Leia said. “What he said!”

Finn replied for Rey. “Thank you so much, Mrs Solo—“

“Mrs Solo?! Organa, but just Leia,”

“Sorry, Leia. We’ll stay if we may.” Finn decided.


	3. Tractors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This family's hilarious, but does it have a dark side? Rey must choose whether to take the job with them... or leave. And who are First Order Cars anyway?

Dinner at the Skywalker household was riotous. Rey felt that they might just as well have been Australian radio operators who, on top of talking Australian, communicated in a mixture of code and inside jokes. They were having so much fun with the nonsense though, making her desperately want to be in on it, but at the same time she felt her social batteries were running on fumes. She switched to low power mode and concentrated on the food as the noise levels rose around her.

Poe’s lamb curry was—well, she would marry the damn guy to stay here and eat his cooking every day. If Finn didn’t get in there first. It was hot without being scorching, lamb slivers flaked tenderly through, bulked out with spinach and soft chickpeas. Very much like Poe himself, if he was a food. What would Ben be if he was a food? A profiterole. Dark chocolate on the outside, melted over a big fluffy sweet pastry with lots of whipped cream. He had stuffed that profiterole right in her mouth and it was the best thing she’d ever eaten.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Kaydel asked.

“I was contemplating the fact that men think women want men, when what women really want mostly is food. So men should take the hint and turn into food.”

The comment fell into silence around the table--until first Leia and then everyone else in the room burst into uproarious laughter. 

“Keep her,” Han said. “She just fixed our marriage.”

“I do good impression of a hot dog,” Finn volunteered loudly.

“Hot bitch, you mean,” Rose said. There was a chorusing of oohs and ‘smooth!’

“She did actually mean that as a compliment,” Kaydel hastened to add.

“Force, now I’m going to lie awake in bed for the next four years bitterly regretting I ever said that,” Rose said.

“Better than regretting being a coward,” Finn told her earnestly.

The dinner wound down and Snap cleared the plates away, Aunty Amy served cake, Han poured out a third round of wine and Rose poured tea and coffee.

“I guess we have to conduct a job interview on you two then,” Leia said. “Do it properly. I was going to ask you to go around the room and say a little bit about yourselves but we’re not aiming for seventh circle of Hell experience so instead, I’m gonna ask Finn to tell us three things about Rey and Rey say three things about Finn. Rey first. Go.”

Rey looked at Finn. He needed this job. She wasn’t about to dish the dirt on him. “He’s the cleanest person I’ve ever met: he smells like flowers all the time so that’s nice.” Poe laughed. “He’s really strong, like really trained-in-the-army strong where they have a whole new level of muscle standards. And he’s loyal to a fault.”

“What kind of fault?” Poe asked, smiling.

“Oh, oh, he insists on writing Christmas cards to everyone he’s ever met ever, which means he has to start writing them back in September. I’ve never written a Christmas card in my life.”

“Good for Finn. Finn, your turn.”

Finn, put on the spot, flustered. “She drives way too fast. Like man I’m sitting in that front seat screaming my head off as she’s laughing like a maniac doing ninety down the fast lane.”

“Hey, you’re meant to be saying good things about me!”

“Okay. She’s amazing at fixing broken things. Cars. Hearts. Boilers.”

“Wait what was the middle one?” Poe asked.

“Boilers,” Finn repeated and plunged on. “And she’s patient. She’s good at waiting.”

There was a bit of an awkward silence, terminated by Aunty Amy clapping her hands. “Right, now we’re done with that little high school OTP…”

“Wait wait wait lemme stop you there how do you know what an OTP is?” Poe said, pointing at her.

“More to the point, how do you know what an OTP is?” Kaydel said, pointing at Poe, who pointed right back at her with his other hand.

“What’s an OTP?” Snap asked.

Leia ignored them. “You’re who you say you are, I background checked you earlier. Rey, you post too many cars on your Insta, you need a hobby. You both can have the job if you want it.” She smiled.

“One moment, one moment,” Poe said, “I need to perform a background check of my own.” He leaned over to Finn who was sitting next to him, until his nose was almost in Finn’s neck, and took an exaggerated sniff. “Yep, smells like flowers. We’re good.”

“I’ll wait till tomorrow to make a decision,” Rey said. “I want to see the contract first.” On second thoughts, she wondered if this household even knew what a contract was, but Leia assured her they would go over it in the morning.

Rey was tired, but the evening was far from over. First came the grand cleaning up. She discovered that they had a strict rota of stacking the dishwasher, washing up, clearing the dishes, putting the leftover food away and other kitchen jobs. Poe had cooked so it was his time off. Rey overheard him having a heated argument with Kaydel inside the pantry. “Fine, yes I follow your Tumblr! It’s not—“

“You’re Crowleysflyboy! Poe you are so gonna regret this...” Rey moved to where she couldn’t hear them, which meant moving closer to the speaker that was blasting out eighties hits like nobody’s business as the gang sang along enthusiastically and quite tunelessly. Rey personally preferred Queen, but she couldn’t deny the charm of Poe emerging from the pantry in sunglasses belting out, “In the jungle, the miiighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight!” into an imaginary mic as the rest of them went in with the “wimba-way, a-wimba-way, a-wimba-way, a-wimba-way.” Cleaning the kitchen morphed into karaoke.

When they were finally done Han sauntered in and unlocked a large cupboard. “What’ve you all been stealing in my absence? We’d better not have run out of whiskey.” The cupboard was filled with bottles of different shapes and colours, with different types of crystal glasses on the top shelf.

“I took the liberty of restocking,” Poe said. “Only the approved stuff.”

“Right. Who wants a cocktail and who wants a little something neat?”

After one glass of port Rey went to bed, leaving Finn valiantly trying to match Poe glass for glass. She took a shower and changed into a pair of Kaydel’s pyjamas that she had lent her. When she got out, she found two messages from Ben, the link to the job application, and a message that just said, “it’s probably too late now.”

“Too late to apply?”

He was online within a minute. “Application’s still open”  
“Too late because you fell into happy sunny ice cream kid heaven and you can’t leave”

“Why can’t I leave”  
“Of course I can leave” Rey felt anxiety start to clench her again. She tried to ignore it by pulling out one of Ben’s tissues and blowing her nose—hay fever right royally sucked.

“You think you can leave but you will be dead to them.”

Rey looked at the message for a long time. She remembered how Rose had said, “Paige was my sister.” What kind of a bloody family was this?

Eventually she typed back, “We need to talk.”

“We do”  
“Let me know when you’re next in town and we’ll have lunch?” He asked.

“Sounds good”

Rey looked up First Order Cars, though the internet was painfully slow. Its website design was professional and clean in tones of black, white and muted red, easy to navigate, adorned with professional photography from their showroom. She clicked into ‘About Us’. A small start-up company with just one location, their Supremacy showroom, who bought old cars in any condition, fixed them and cleaned them, and sold them to anywhere in the country. “Efficient, professional, dedicated to what we do.” And they delivered on that promise, according to the reviews. 

At the bottom of the page she found a gem: photographs and self-descriptions of the staff. There were just three. A great picture of Ben grinning in his sunglasses. “Ben Solo, CEO - My passion for cars is my driving force in this company. I give every car individual attention to give it new life and strive to never fall short of full potential.” Rey interpreted this as, “I’m a total nerd for cars and even though I’m the CEO I’m the one with my head in the engines trying to find the coolant leaks.” The next picture was a young woman with short white blonde hair. “Gwendoline Phasma, Head of Customer Relations - My goal is to give every customer an excellent experience and to leave them feeling better at the end of any interaction than at the beginning. All queries and deals handled immediately and efficiently.” It seemed like they took a part of the motto each; Ben was the Dedicated part, Gwen was the Efficient part, which meant this last guy was probably the Professional part. Red head with a hard-lined face and good cheekbones. “Armitage Hux, Head of Finance - I deliver professional service in finding good deals so that we can offer you the best and most affordable prices on the market…” blah blah yes, he was Professional. They claimed to be the Heads of their departments but Rey strongly suspected that was because they were also the sum total of their departments.

Right at the bottom, there was a fourth picture. It was a ginger cat asleep beside a parked Bentley in the showroom. “Millicent, Mascot Cat - I give moral support and cuddles to anyone who needs my services, though I am careful to keep your showroom cars very clean.” Rey smiled. She wondered if Millicent belonged to Ben. Or Gwendoline Phasma perhaps?

She went back to browsing the cars. Eventually she realised she was on data and she decided to venture out and ask for the WiFi password. She put on a jacket and headed out into the landing—to be greeted by Poe helping a rather stoned Finn up the stairs.

“I don’t know how he made it through the army, he’s such a lightweight,” Rey said—although Finn wasn’t that much of a lightweight, really.

“The shower in Finn’s room is broken again, so he’s, uh, using the one in my room,” Poe said. Finn grinned and nodded, and Rey frowned at him, suddenly wishing he was a bit more stoned.

“I was wondering if I could have the WiFi password?”

“The WiFi password? You want the password. Well… ask Kaydel.” Poe nodded to a particular bedroom door and led Finn into his own bedroom, shutting the door and leaving Rey dithering on the darkened landing. 

She knocked on Kaydel’s door, and was invited in. Kaydel’s room was warm and messy and lamp lit, and Kaydel herself stood on the rug, hair let down and wavy from her two tight buns, dressed only in a towel. “Sorry I’m not decent, the shower in my room is broken again so I was going to use the one in Poe’s.”

“But, uh—“

“Don’t ask,” Kaydel warned.

“Okay.”

“All you need to know is, Poe is always happy to accommodate if the shower in your room is ever broken.”

“Okay.”

“Do you need something?” Kaydel gave her an inviting smile.

“I was wondering if I could have the WiFi password.”

“The WiFi password?” Kaydel stiffened a bit. Why did they keep repeating her? Was there an unspoken rule she had broken in asking for it? “We give the password to people who are going to stay here. I know Finn wants the job more than you do. I know the pollen in the countryside here isn’t kind to you. You don’t have to take the job, we’ll understand. But you can only have the password if you choose to stay,” Kaydel said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Rey sat down beside her. “Well—it’s all so sudden. I don’t know what the contract is yet. And I’ve been invited to apply for another job in London as a proper mechanic…”

“Do you know if you’ll get it?”

“Well—no. But he seemed keen.” Rey admitted.

“Do you know when you’ll get it?”

“No.”

“These things always take a few months. And be honest, can you afford the rent while you wait for a job that might not come?” Kaydel asked.

Rey shook her head. “No. Especially if Finn decides to move out. We flat share.” She half smiled. “He’s a horrible cook. I had to learn during the lockdown, can make bread from packets and stuff. We don’t share beds though—or showers.”

Kaydel smiled and leaned back. “We have good cooks here, and good showers. You’ll be given ample chance to demonstrate your skills. Board is included with the job. The life, really. Here, everything is certain and everything lasts forever. You’ll always have a family.”

“I’ve never had a family.” Rey said simply. “I was sure they would come back one day, but they never did.”

“You’ll always have one here.”

Rey remembered what Ben had said. “Can I leave anytime? Get a new job or get married or something?”

“Why would you want to?”

“I might.”

“I suppose. You can bring your boyfriend or girlfriend here. New jobs… that’ll be in your contract. You have to stay until the end of your contract.”

“I’m going to be negotiating that with Leia in the morning. Okay Kaydel. Can I have the WiFi password?”

Kaydel jumped up and led her by the hand down the stairs, obviously not caring that she was wearing nothing but the towel. In the living room, there were only lamps lit in the corners. Kaydel led her over to a corner table where the WiFi router stood gently blinking. “I’ll read it out and you put it in.”

Together they put in the password and Rey connected to the WiFi. Kaydel embraced her. “Welcome to the family,” she said, kissing Rey on the cheek.

The next morning Rey sat at the kitchen table going over the contract with Leia. She hadn’t come down early enough for the first breakfast, so she was waiting for the second. Although Leia was reluctant, Rey got her to agree to a six-month contract that could be terminated or renewed at the end of its term. She found Leia to be a shrewd businesswoman—she seemed to take only a light hand in any of the physical farm work or cooking and cleaning and Rey now suspected that she was the one that actually kept it running and paying. 

“Kaydel told me you’ve got the WiFi password.” Leia said. Rey smiled and nodded. “I’m afraid the internet is rubbish. Anyway, let me see, house rules: don’t flush anything down the toilet that doesn’t belong there because we have a septic tank and the one who blocked it has to unblock it, which happens at least once a year.” Rey wrinkled her nose and Leia carried on, counting on her fingers, “No playing the floor is lava or furniture parkour. It’s wrecked too many perfectly good chairs. Don’t injure or kill yourself because of the paperwork and also the hospital is miles and miles away. General swimming in the river is on days beginning with ’T’ only, male only swimming on Mondays and Fridays, female only swimming Wednesdays and Saturdays, private swimming parties on Sundays.” Rey nodded along, trying to remember it all. “And everyone is expected to help with cooking, cleaning and general chores according to allocation. I do try to take preferences into account but I can’t always. Like Poe loves cooking but Rose doesn’t, so I put him on it more often than her. When it’s your turn to cook, make sure you’ve planned it in advance so I can factor it in to the weekly shop. I think that’s about it. Oh and there’s always a party for Sunday Service if you go in for that. Do you have any allergies or food-hates? You want to write them on the whiteboard there.”

“I don’t, but Finn is lactose intolerant.”

At that moment, Finn himself came down. He looked like he was auditioning for zombie of the year, and if he was dressed in something other than Poe’s pyjama top underneath his own trousers and braces, he would have won hands down. His hangover was almost physically manifesting itself as a fog around him.

“Finn, one egg or two?” Snap asked him as he broke eggs to fry into a pan. When Finn didn’t answer, Snap asked, “Two eggs or three?”

“Think he could do with some hair of the dog,” Han said from behind his newspaper. “I’ll get you some.” He folded up his newspaper and went and dug around in the kitchen cupboards, the fridge and his own alcohol cabinet, tipping liquids that looked like they should be kept apart from each other by nuclear blast walls together into a tumbler. He handed it to Finn.

Poe chose that moment to come in from the sunshine morning, radiant in riding britches, the sun shining through his wind tousled hair. “Finn! Good to see you buddy! Mourning’s rough on you, huh.”

Finn grunted, beginning to come back from beyond the grave by the grace of Han’s foul concoction. Just enough alive to stutter and turn a deep shade of red.

“You’ll feel better for some breakfast.” Poe slapped him on the shoulder causing Finn to groan and almost topple over. Second breakfast was being laid by Snap and Rose all around Leia and Rey on the table, bacon, eggs, baked beans, black pudding, fried mushrooms and toast. On cue, the entire household appeared and sat down to a full English. It was obvious that most of them had been up for hours doing work that Rey still vaguely called “farming.” Except for Poe, who as a competitive jockey had been out riding. They piled their plates and tucked in.

“So, do you want to make a start on the tractors?” Leia asked when they had finished. Full of salty bacon and sweet ketchup, Rey grabbed her toolbox and headed out into the sunshine to begin her new job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finn's experiences partly inspired by The Darling Buds of May (tv show)


	4. Trains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey returns to London for a secret fluffy first date with Ben, unprepared to hear some of the darker secrets of the Skywalker family.

Rey strode into Covent Garden feeling almost guilty. Decidedly guilty in fact. She was altogether too happy to be back in the liveliness of London having lunch with the one person her new family hated. She and Finn had come up to bring the last of their things from their apartment down, and after the morning’s packing Finn had gone straight back but Rey had stayed with some vague business to attend to. Lunch with Ben.

Covent Garden was milling with shoppers and lunchers. The little chocolate shops and perfume shops and bric-a-brac shops were far too expensive for Rey’s purse but that didn’t stop her from enjoying trying them. She followed the sound of a string quartet that was playing Mozart as if they were on lunch break from performing at the Royal Opera House just up the road. The buskers were in the corner of a little lower courtyard filled with café tables. Rey spotted Ben, sunglasses pushed up on his head, and hurried down to join him.

“Rey!”

“Ben!”

They made an awkward greeting and sat down. They discussed the weather, the music, and of course the various routes they had taken to get there in detail. They didn’t touch the subject of the farm or the family.

They sat at a round table, not quite opposite each other to be able to half face the buskers. The day was sunny, the quartet was playing an upbeat tune, and Ben was trying too hard to cover his happy awkward emotions and look chill for her. He played with the menu card, turning it over and over in his hands as he cast her a smile. Though scrubbed clean and soft, the lines still bore faint traces of ingrained engine oil. Rey wanted to rub them with her own matching ones, push her fingers through his black black hair the way he was constantly doing.

“Ready to order?” A waitress interrupted.

Rey ordered a savoury pancake stuffed with ham and cheese, and a red wine to match. Ben ordered the same, but with salmon instead of ham.

“So tell me about First Order Cars,” Rey said after the waitress took their menus, poured the wine and they couldn’t keep to neutral subjects anymore.

Ben smiled and it was as if the sun had come out just for her. “It’s my dream come true. The three things I wanted to do as a teen was live in London... I mean, look at all this life and people and things to do and try and experience and make better for everybody...” He reached an open hand to the buskers, “and I wanted to do something with cars instead of some office job like the rest of the madding crowd, but also I wanted to build up something of my own, something big, work for myself so that I could make it all better and more efficient and pay people what they should be paid and be someone... and anyway, I guess I did.” He took a deep breath.

“That’s so rare... rare to make a life that matches your dreams.” Rey said sincerely, watching the sparkle in Ben’s brown eyes as he talked.

“What about your dreams?” Ben asked.

Rey tossed her head. “I’ve put in an application for the mechanic job in your company, though the first I’d be able to start would be January. Is it just the three of you who work there or—?”

“Four of us.” He flicked her a glance that said she would not get off so lightly talking about herself next time. “Don’t forget Millicent, the cat.”

“Is she yours?”

“Actually she belongs to Hux but she’s become a fixture on the premises. She’s ever so cuddly although obviously she likes Hux best.”

“Why do you call him Hux and not his first name?”

“If you ever try calling him Armie he will—ineffectively—punch you in the face. He’s... funny like that. Things have to be just so. But we’re all quirky there really.” Ben glanced down with a fond smile.

“Are you? What’s a typical day like?” Rey leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table, giving her attention to nothing but him. He had struck out on his own path, what kind of a life had he made?

“Well--why don’t you come for some experience? Spend a few days working with us? It’d be no trouble to arrange.” He looked hopefully at her. He had obviously been gearing up to ask her this.

Rey wanted to seize the opportunity with both hands. But how would she ever explain it to the Skywalkers? “I’ll see. If I can get away.”

“That’s always it, isn’t it,” Ben said with bitterness, “getting away.”

Rey looked darkly up at him from under her eyebrows. She wasn’t ready to have to defend her family from him. She didn’t want to have anything come between them, not so early on when the whole of London seemed to be celebrating for their first date. Yet—it was only a matter of time.

“Who ordered the ham?” The waitress asked, two plates of pancakes in her hands.

“I did,” Rey said as Ben rearranged the cutlery on the tiny table for the waitress to set the food.

After a little faff they were left alone again to eat. The string quartet had been replaced with an opera singer in jeans and t-shirt belting out “Hallelujah” like he was competing with Andrea Bocelli at the Eurovision. 

The ham and cheese pancake was exquisite. The pancake was the French kind, thin and sweet and melting in the mouth, contrasting well with the chewier texture of the salty ham and offset by the creaminess of the brie. Rey added a smudge of light dijon mustard to the next mouthful, and with that added kick the sum of it all was perfection.

Rey opened her eyes to catch Ben smirking at her. “Is it good?” He asked, feigning innocence of watching her pleasure.

“All food is good after making do with packets of quarter portions your whole childhood.” Rey retorted. “Is yours good?”

In answer, he speared his first forkful and held it out to her. She made a grab for the fork but he didn’t let go; her hand closed over his as he popped it directly in her mouth. Her appreciation for the fishy pancake was buried in her confusion and rush of feelings. She let go of his hand as if it was hot—which it was—but he caught hers in his other hand, opening her fingers one by one, rubbing them between his own warm ones, eventually just clasping it beneath the table. She squeezed it gently, returning his move though she couldn’t quite meet his eyes. He squeezed right back, and they ate their pancakes in one-handed silence, gently squeezing back and forth beneath the table as the busker sang, “and from her lips she drew the hallelujah…”

It was Ben who broached the painful subject first. “How’s my family?” He asked intensely. “Don’t answer. I’ve lost.”

“I’ve found a family.” Rey said simply.

“You think of them as the family you never had.” He squeezed her hand almost aggressively under the table.

“Why did you... you had a family who loved you, who gave a damn about you.” Rey found herself unexpectedly choked up; family was all she’d ever wanted, all those years in foster homes, parents who cared about her... her only wish had been to have Ben’s upbringing, and he’d rejected it all like it didn’t matter. It did matter. It mattered more than anything. “Why did you...” she couldn’t carry on.

“Say it,” he encouraged, gripping her hand, “say it.”

“Why did you leave them?” She gulped, furiously trying to get a grip on herself. Deep breath, get a grip. 

“Did they tell you what happened that night? The night I decided to leave, did they tell you what happened?” He seemed calm, but there was a fire in him now. The subject had touched a nerve in both of them.

“I know everything I need to know about you,” Rey said with conviction. There was nothing this man could say that make anything better. It was a mistake coming here, of course the Skywalkers were right. She tried to let go of his hand to get up and leave, but he held on and wouldn’t let her.

“You do?” He asked with interest. “Wait. Let me tell you. Luke... no, listen to me. Luke used to teach the village school where I and the other kids went. I don’t know what idiot gave him a teaching licence. He didn’t know the first thing about children. The stuff he tried to teach us was way over our heads. We were kids, we were unruly. His discipline was erratic—and painful. One night after he’d really lost control, he got drunk. He came into my room at night when I was asleep, and he got hold of a sword that I had—because. Sword. And I woke to Uncle Luke threatening to kill me.” Ben let go of her hand and grabbed the wineglass. He swirled it around aggressively, his face dark as he stared into its depths.

“Ben! That can’t be true. It’s too—he would never do something like that!” Rey was deeply shaken.

Ben knocked back the last of the red wine in one gulp and set it down with a crack. “Would I lie to you?”

“How should I know?”

“Ask him. Ask Luke. It is true, but ask him all the same. He’ll paint me the bad guy, they all do. They tried to stop me from leaving, like I would stay after... he expelled me from the school after that, he expelled me! He should have been fired himself after threatening one of us! And they all tried to hang on to me, tooth and nail, stay in the family, work the bloody farm day after boring day in that backwater and be expected to think it Heaven on Earth... I’m sorry. You didn’t need that. I mean, it’s just—whatever. Sorry. It’s so pathetic as well, like so many people have real problems and real abusive childhoods and horrible times, it’s so bloody stupid of me to be so wound up. I’m being ridiculous.” He put his head in his hands and stared down at his empty plate.

Rey went around behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them. Ben put his hands up and caught hers, drawing them down around him from behind. She leaned on his broad back and rested her chin on his shoulder. “We’re only human,” she murmured in his hair.

“I’m better than this, really. I thought I’d moved on.” He growled.

“You have,” Rey said, “you just haven’t gone back and fixed the past yet.”

“Don’t go back. Stay here with me.” He twisted around in his chair so that he could put his arms around her small waist.

“But I have to.”

“No you don’t. You don’t owe them anything. They can’t keep hold of you like that, we’re adults.” He said fiercely, looking up at her.

She ran her hands through his thick hair, twisting it through her fingers. “You don’t understand,” she said tenderly, “I want to go back. It’s my home. But—“ she said, leaning down and kissing him on the forehead, “maybe next time. Do you want to walk me back to Waterloo? I mustn’t miss my train.”

“Alright. Let me get the bill.” But he didn’t move. They just stayed locked in each other for a moment longer. Rey didn’t want it to end, just wanted to stay forever with this other human, sharing something of their own, privately together here in London. 

It was with great reluctance that they left that place, walking hand in hand through the streets and across Waterloo bridge, the long way back to the train station.


	5. Truck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back at the farm, Rey is having a hard time piecing together Ben's story without revealing their growing relationship. She begins to find out she can't have the best of both worlds...

Rey sat in the back of the pickup truck buried under two enormous bags of vegetables and contemplated how to broach the subject of Ben. Squinting hard at a couple of shiny eggplants, she tried different sentences in her head. “So you know that estranged relative of yours…” Meh. She shifted the pineapple so it wasn’t prickling her stomach and tried again. “You know that day I was in London, I was on a date with…” No, she couldn’t start with the date. Even the dozen-odd courgettes looked disapproving of that. “I’ve been considering doing work experience with…”

“Ice cream!” Leia shouted. She came out of the corner shop with her hands stuffed with ice-cream cones of different flavours. There was a cheer from the group in the back of the parked pickup who had been patiently—and not so patiently—waiting with the groceries packed around them. “Who wanted strawberry—strawberry anyone? Rey? And Poe you wanted the mint choc chip—Rose here’s your chocolate—and the vanilla’s for Snap…” She passed the cones up, melted ice-cream running down her fingers. “No sneaking licks on the way!” Nobody listened to that. “Finn! You got a special one.”

“Ooh, special one,” Poe said, licking it. “Meh. Kinda weird. Hey Rey! Yours looks good! Can I try?”

Rey held her ice cream high in the air where he couldn’t reach it. “Nope! Only special people get to.” She was momentarily granted a glimpse of Aunty Amy licking the ice cream mess off Leia’s fingers while holding her own purple-coloured ice cream dramatically out of the way.

“Oh, special people only is it!” Poe crowed jealously. “And who’s special enough to get a lick of Rey’s ice-cream?”

“Ben,” she thought, but did not say. Smirking at him, she took a chunk off her ice cream and fed it to Arty the collie. 

“Stop it,” Siegfried protested, feeding Arty liberally from his own toffee ice-cream, “don’t give him ideas. It’s not good for him.”

Poe had to content himself with Rose’s. He and Rose were sitting either side of Finn so they had to reach across him to eat off each others ice creams. Finn just rolled his eyes and tried to shift so the baguettes stopped sticking in him so much. Calling herself a coward, Rey put off asking about Ben and indulged whole-heartedly in her gourmet strawberry ice cream.

—

“Amy, how many times have I told you… you can’t bake in the kitchen while I’m cooking here!” Poe said, trying to navigate around their honorary auntie’s energetic mixing.

“Stick to your post, flyboy. These are raspberry and white chocolate muffins… no no no licking!” She slapped his wrist as he dipped a finger in the mix.

Rey sat on the kitchen countertop peeling potatoes for Poe’s creamy chicken and potato traybake. After every potato, she passed it to Kaydel who was chopping next to her, and after every potato she tried to work up the courage to ask about Ben. 

Finn was also in the kitchen, always eager to help out, but after nobody had heeded Rey’s warnings and let him cook—to disastrous results—he had been demoted to washing up.

“Look, I don’t want to be rude,” Rey blurted out, “but what happened with Ben?”

“Ben?” Kaydel said, looking up. “How do you know his name?”

Rey mentally kicked herself. She’d put her foot in it already. She looked pleadingly at Finn, usually a faithful backup, but he frowned and shook his head, not understanding what she wanted. “Somebody told me, I think.”

“Then that same person can tell you what happened.” Kaydel replied.

“They—I can’t. I want to know reliably. You told me he made Leia cry.”

Auntie Amy replied, “That’s why we don’t talk about it. She cried when he broke ties with us and said he wasn’t coming back. And he didn’t.” She spooned mixture into the muffin tins.

“What made him leave?”

Amy paused before replying, so long that Rey thought maybe she hadn’t heard her. “He always was a rebellious boy. I liked him. Too clever and ambitious for his own good.”

“He found this place boring, he said,” Poe said with a mixture of anger and incredulousness.

Rey was about to ask something else, but Leia walked in at that moment and they all clammed up. Amy slammed the muffins in the oven, set a timer and vanished to aggressively help Rose clean out the hen house.

—

Late in the evening after everyone had gone to bed, Rey crept downstairs. She couldn’t sleep and the last raspberry and white choc muffin was calling to her—at least, that’s what she told herself, but her mind was buzzing around Ben, trying to piece together the stories, the different character portraits everyone painted of him. What had happened?

There was someone else up using a torch around the dark kitchen. Also a large dog, by the sounds of it. “Who’s there?” She asked.

“It’s me. Han. Someone has stolen the last muffin.” Han said in annoyance.

“You mean the last muffin’s gone? We definitely didn’t eat it.”

“You here for it too? Probably Snap finished it off.” Han said gloomily. “Anyway, I won’t see you kids in the morning. Gotta go back to work for a bit.”

Rey sighed and leaned back against the doorway. “What do you do?”

“Private shipping business. Classified—under radar. Don’t ask. Come on Chewie.”

“Okaaay. Well good night.” Rey said.

“Good night.” Han headed out the back door.

Rey wondered if Ben was up. They had called several times, mostly late at night because that was the only time there was any guaranteed privacy at the farm. She pulled out her phone from her dressing gown pocket. There was a message from him, sent half an hour ago: “Wanna talk?” She hadn’t been notified because Do Not Disturb was turned on. On impulse, she hit the call button. She was too much of a mess to video call. It rang, once, twice, four times. He picked up. “Hey, Ben…”

“Hey! Good to hear your voice. How was your day?”

Rey smiled, calling herself silly to be so happy to hear his voice. “Pretty good. Did the shopping, had ice cream…” she told him about it.

“Oh yeah, the ice cream. We used to do that. Ah come on, you’re nearly making me nostalgic for it now.”

Someone was coming down. Blessing the creaky stairs, Rey hushed Ben up and looked around for an escape. But it was too late. Snap bumbled in to the dark kitchen.

“Muffin,” he mumbled.

“Someone ate it already,” Rey told him, “Not me. Go back to bed.” Snap groaned and left again.

“There is not one shred of privacy in that household, is there?” Ben asked, annoyed but not at her.

“I have never been more offended by something I one hundred percent agree with.” Rey grumbled. “Stop picking on them. I like it this way.”

“Huh. Any chance of coming up here for work experience? Or just a nice day trip to London?”

“It’s so bloody expensive. I could come up to visit my grandfather, I suppose.”

“Is this a pretend grandfather? Fictional dying relative excuse?” Ben asked.

“No, no, this is a real grandfather.” Rey said, wandering into the dark living room and flopping on the sofa. The smell of pipe tobacco smoke hung in the air. “He’s in a nursing home, Shanghai or Shangri La or something.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a family.” Ben said quietly. It was relaxing to talk one-on-one with him after a long day of a noisy group and constant work. Quiet time with someone outside the closed circle of the farm.

“Not one that’s ever had a hand in my life. I’ve always been alone.” 

“Like me now.” He said in a low voice.

“And… I still feel alone, even in the family.” Rey confessed. It was so relieving to finally say it out loud. “It’s like I try and exclude myself. I want privacy and not to have to share even the food on my plate. And it’s exhausting, keeping the energy up to live with them always: I have to take time out, but it’s weird here to want to do that, there’s no privacy. It feels like… I’ve been offered what I wanted more than anything else in the world, but I can’t take it. I’ve never—I’ve never felt so alone.”

There was a pause. Then his voice came, deep and reassuring. “You’re not alone.”

“Neither are you,” she whispered.

At that moment, the lights of the living room turned on. Rey cried out and blinked. In the corner, pipe in one hand and plate of crumbled muffin in the other, stood Luke, glowering at her. He had obviously been there the whole time. “Rey! You’re not—“

Rey dropped her phone and jumped up, more furious than she had been all year. “How dare you! How DARE you! You—“

“You can’t fraternise with my nephew! He’s a dangerous man! It was good riddance to him, so don’t you dare drag him back into this…”

Rey stood speechless a moment. “Did you do it? Did you drive him out?” She would know. She had to know the whole story.

Luke sighed. Bowed his head. “He was a bad kid. I saw it all through his schooling. He was the gang leader of the kids, making them rebel against me, making them wild and riotous. One time, I gave them all the switch. Not hard, a tap each. A warning. Detention couldn’t control them. And then he made them retaliate. They booby-trapped my entire office. Not harmlessly. Painfully. And when I went to confront them about it, they showed me a film they had taken of me giving them the switch. They said if I tried to punish them or do anything they didn’t want ever again, they’d send it to Ofsted. Apparently using switches was illegal and would have me fired. They would get me fired if I didn’t let them do just what they liked. I couldn’t believe it: teaching was my dream and he had finally wrecked it. Ruined my entire career. I expelled him, but I had to retire.” He seemed to be done, facing her defiantly.

“And then you got drunk and threatened to kill him.” Rey snapped.

Luke closed his eyes. “I wouldn’t have killed him. It was just a replica sword. I was drunk, regrettably. Wasn’t in control.”

“Luke, what on earth is going on?” Leia said, coming in in her white dressing gown.

Rey answered for him. “I’m leaving, that’s what. I’m going to stay in London for a few days. I’ve had enough of the lot of you!”

She picked up her phone and marched out. One message to Ben: “I’m coming up by the earliest train for some of that work experience. Thanks for the offer.” She spent the rest of the night packing.


	6. First Order Cars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After her blow-up with Uncle Luke, Ben takes Rey to do work experience at his start-up company, First Order Cars. They're an eccentric crew—Gwen Phasma, Hux, and his adored cat Millicent—but can Rey fix disaster when they assume her relationship is more advanced than it really is?
> 
> (P.S. You never believed until this moment that fixing cars could be sooo fluffy. Trust me, it can be.)

Ben had picked her up from the station in a black Porsche—not his, from the showroom . He’d hugged her, given her an enormous cup of coffee and not said a word about what had happened. Not yet. Despite his warm presence next to her in the car, she found herself unexpectedly jittery with nerves.

The ten-minute car drive with Ben was a wild ride. Literally a wild ride: she had been given the title on the farm of “Craziest Driver” after Han had let her in the Falcon one time and everybody had forbidden her to be the designated driver since—but Ben could really compete for that title. Half the time he was at least twenty miles an hour over the speed limit and the rest of the time he was slamming through red lights like nobody cared. Rey loved it. It was over too soon, pulling into the private car park at the back of the showroom where several classic cars lay in widely different stages of repair. Ben was the kind of parker that sweeps into a spot in one move and decides that life’s too short to straighten up.

“It’s quite a simple layout really,” Ben said as he locked the Porsche as if he hadn’t nearly killed them both on the road. “The showroom at the front, garage at the back, and the offices above. We’re one minute and—“ he checked his watch (the kind that can tell you the time in five different time zones, your latitude and longitude and which way is North even if you are deep sea diving)— “forty seconds late, so the others should be here already. Would you like to meet them first or see the cars first?”

“Let’s get the worst over with and meet the new people first.”

Ben led her up a flight of outside stairs and in through a clean white door at the top. Rey’s first impression was of aggressively uncluttered tidiness. There was not one single piece of paper lying around in the entire office space. It didn’t look realistic. In the centre of the room were four desks grouped together, each with its own state of the art set of monitors.

A beautiful blonde woman unfolded herself from her chair, took off a headset and stood up to an intimidating height. She was simply dressed in clean black with a big silver necklace and matching bangles. “Hello—you must be Rey. I’m Gwen, Gwen Phasma. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“You—you have?” Rey stammered. 

She was saved from embarrassment by a red-haired man in a black suit who looked like modelling agencies would regularly approach him if he didn’t look so unapproachable. “Hux.” He held out his hand. “I hope you’re not allergic to cats.”

She shook his hand. “I’m not. I love cats.”

He gave a pleased smile, bent down and scooped up a truly enormous ginger cat. “Good. This is Millicent. I trust you’ll get along well.”

Rey dared to approach and stroke her soft head. She was unbelievably furry. She accepted the petting graciously, rubbing into Rey’s hand, and then wriggled up to drape herself over Hux’s shoulder. Hux’s expression softened for just a moment as he stoked her back.

“I’m glad we finally get to meet Ben’s girlfriend,” Hux said.

Rey physically felt herself go in to shock. She hadn’t thought the expression “felt like she’d been slapped in the face” actually felt like that in reality. Now she found out it did. “I’m not—we’re not—“ She couldn’t meet Ben’s eyes, but he seemed equally bewildered.

Hux’s expression didn’t change. “Ah. I see I’ve jumped the gun.”

“Why don’t you go and show her the cars?” Gwen said smoothly. Ben turned on his heel and marched out the door. Rey hurried after him, mentally kicking herself. Ben took the stairs two at a time, and she had to run to keep up.

“Ben!” He didn’t turn around. “Ben! You’re not mad at me, are you?”

“Why would I be mad at you?” He asked, deadpan. Mentally she ceased kicking herself and started giving herself a true beating. Ben marched into an open garage and gestured to a grey Jaguar e-type that was deep in the throes of being disassembled, fixed, and reassembled. “Jaguar,” he said unnecessarily, “got a bad motivator and I’m having trouble getting at it.” He stood in the entry with his arms crossed as Rey walked over to the car. Ran her hands over the long bonnet. Dropped to her knees and rolled underneath it.

“Can I have a torch?” She called, sticking her hand out from under the car. Ben’s hand put a torch in hers so quickly that he must have been getting it for her before she asked.

“There’s a head torch for when you need it.” He said, opening the bonnet.

Rey poked around, trying to find the bolts for the motivator and feeling more confident in her natural environment. She took a deep breath. They were both adults. “I’m sorry, Ben.”

There was silence, and a lot of studious rooting around in the engine. Then, “Don’t you want to—to be my—to be with me?”

“No! It’s not, it’s not that. It’s just—can I have a spanner? Size five. I’ve found the bolt. The head torch too.” Ben pushed the things under the car for her. “I’m just not good at taking things quickly. I’ve been alone for so—“ she wrenched at the bolt— “bloody—“ she heaved at it again— “long,” it finally began to ease, “I’m terrified.” There was no other word for it.

“Of me? Don’t be afraid of me.”

The bolt was finally freed and the motivator was just sitting on the chassis, waiting to be lifted out.

Rey wriggled out from under the car and found Ben sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, leaning against the bonnet. She sat down next to him, pulling her knees up to her chin, rubbing shoulder to shoulder. “I’m afraid of being known. I don’t know if I want to be known. I mean I do want to be known really, more than anything. But how could anyone like me if they knew me, all the bad bits and the flaws?”

Ben took her hand in his, twining their fingers and then kissing each of her fingers in turn. “Liking has got nothing to do with it,” he murmured, “and loving has everything. Only loving comes from knowing everything about a person. I want to get to know you. Will you let me?”

Rey felt a hundred feelings dance in the pit of her stomach. Warmth flooded through her. “I think,” she whispered, pressing his hand to her lips, “We’ve already made a start.”

He smiled at her then. Touched her face, stroking her cheek with his fingers, gently dragging his thumb across her lips. “Though I don’t want to go too fast. I want to know you too,” she said.

Ben’s expression changed slightly, as if he’d just thought of something.

“What is it?”

“Did he tell you what happened? Did Luke tell you about me?” He asked, dropping his hand from her.

“Yes. Yes he did.”

“And?”

She scrambled up and held out her hand to him. “Let’s fix that motivator and I’ll tell you. We don’t need it flooding the place with poisonous gas.” He nodded once, and took her hand, though he didn’t need it, and they bent over the engine. “I think we’re going to have to remove the compressor entirely to get at it.” They worked perfectly in sync, their hands getting grimed and oiled but nevertheless often closing over each other. “He told me you were some kind of ringleader of the other school kids. Gang leader more like.”

Ben grinned. “Sounds about right. I was Captain Ben Solo!”

“He said he beat you all up with a big stick and that’s when it really all blew up.” There was something, something exhilarating about fixing things together like this. They fitted so well, anticipating each other’s needs, disassembling the engine together.

“True. What grates is that they all blame ME for it,” he said.

“I’m sure if you came back you could make up?”

Ben pursed his lips. “It’s not just that though. It’s our whole attitude to each other. I wanted to leave, they didn’t want to let me go…”

“But you’re not teenagers anymore. We’ve all matured. There could be a second chance,” Rey said, getting the spanner into the tricky place to undo the last bolt.

“True,” he said noncommittally, and together they heaved the stubborn motivator out and onto a bench. They wiped their hands on opposite ends of the same rag.

Rey inspected it. “It’ll live,” she decided. “And now I want to see the showroom.”

The showroom was a thing of beauty in white, black and red. Every line shone, not a speck of dust or a greasy fingermark or a muddy footprint anywhere. About a dozen different kinds of classic cars stood around, all running boards and long bonnets and huge fenders. Rey longed to run her hands along the clean lines but she didn’t dare: they were polished and buffed to a shine and her hands were still grimy.

She tried to express her awe to Ben. He led her around each and every car, most models intimately familiar to Rey who had worked on many similar in the past, and he explained their history and the unique problems each had presented, often interrupted by her to ask if he had tried this or that solution. Sometimes he had, sometimes he hadn’t. Rey couldn’t help comparing this tour to the one she had received at the Skywalker Farm and decided this was far more interesting than goggling at cows who did nothing but moo and crap and get milked.

It took two hours until Rey finally decided she needed a break. Ben took her back upstairs to the kitchenette and tiny bathroom suite which opened off the offices, all clean to the point of madness.

Gwen took off her headset as they came in and stretched. “Coffee, Rey? Tea?”

“Coffee, please. Milk and sugar.” Rey said gratefully.

“We write our preferences on the blackboard there. You should do the same, there’s blackboard markers at the bottom.” Gwen gestured to a blackboard beside the door which Rey hadn’t noticed wen she came in. It had been sectioned in half by a line that looked like two or three people had been silently passive-aggressively fighting about how far over the line should go. It had been rubbed out and redrawn several times. On the left side of the line were written beverage preferences in several different handwritings. Overly large and flowing but sloppy at the top was written, “Ben: Dark black coffee”. Next to it a different, neat spidery hand had written “ <\- (with milk and four sugars)”. The same hand had written just underneath, “Gwen: Coffee, two sugars, almond or soya milk (if available).” A third hand had printed in small capitals: “HUX: COFFEE WITH ONLY A SPOT OF MILK. DO NOT FEED MILLICENT ANY OF YOUR CAFFEINE OR VEGAN SUBSTANCES. SHE ONLY TAKES WATER OR WHOLE MILK.” Rey picked up the marker and crouching, wrote at the bottom in her atrocious handwriting, “Rey — coffee with milk and one (1) sugar. x”

At the top of the right side of the board, Hux had printed in capitals, “SUCCESS IS OFTEN ACHIEVED BY THOSE WHO DON’T KNOW THAT FAILURE IS INEVITABLE. —COCO CHANEL” along with the date and day of the week. “We put up a new quote every day,” Hux’s voice came across the room. “Today was my day.” Under the quote, squashed in the bottom right corner, was a long to-do list for the week, with check boxes beside each item, in progressively smaller handwriting as the board ran out of space, written in the different hands of all three members of staff nearly equally. Each was quite specific, and most had a time goal attached. It was Wednesday, and about a third of them had been checked off already. Rey found, “Wed—get that bloody compressor out and inspect,” and took the liberty of marking it off.

“Glad to see you’re being useful already,” Hux said. Rey smiled: it was hard to take offence from a man half buried beneath a fluffy sleeping cat. “Ben? Are you there?” He called through to the kitchenette. “I’m doing the expense reports.”

“Ugh.”

“You know what that means. Please come here...”

“Ugh.” Ben sloped out of the kitchen carrying two mugs: the Keep Calm and Carry On one he came and gave to Rey, and sipped out of his own that had a Bentley printed on the side. He came and stood behind Hux’s chair, peering at the screen. Gwen followed him with her own Sherlock-merchandise mug of coffee and put a second mug—obviously designed for the use of some “crazy cat lady who fancies faux Parisienne style”—down in front of Hux, who thanked her gratefully.

“Ben, I’m sorry, but your lavish Covent Garden date with Rey here—apologies—is not, and will never be, company expenses,” he said.

“But I was interviewing her!” Ben protested. “Purely an interview, right Rey?”

“Mm, you had crepes.” Gwen commented over Hux’s shoulder. “Hardly expenses...”

“I’m sorry Rey, but nope. Besides, you can’t have been interviewing her. I’ve not even reviewed the application yet, that’s for Thursday. You can’t just give her the job, dammit.” Hux said.

“Let’s see your expenses, Hux,” Gwen said, reaching over and clicking in to the next page of the Excel spreadsheet, despite Hux frantically trying to bat her hand away. “Cat food. Cat food is not expenses. We talked about this.”

“But I feed her on the premises!”

“She’s your pet!”

“Guys, guys,” Rey said, “you strike out the cat food, he’ll strike the crepes. How about that?”

“Fine.”

“Okay with that,” Ben said. “Gwen as usual has efficiently not put anything that doesn’t belong there?”

“I need the inventory of spare parts you need for the Jaguar so I can source them for you,” Hux said, sipping his coffee.

“I’ll have it on your desk before lunchtime,” Ben promised. “Come on Rey. Hux is a hard task master!” They headed back down to the garage.

“And a good thing too because I’ve already got an interested buyer!” Gwen called after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More coming just as soon as exams release me from their jaws of death!

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to VenlaMatleena :)
> 
> If you know the artist of the artwork I used please please link because I just found the pic second hand on google. :)


End file.
